Tag : survey

10

November 2010

I was at a conference last week and saw a funny thing that I did not think would ensue so quickly in the technology and business environment. Sitting in the meeting with 25 other people, both business and technical folks, about 80% of them had iPads which was shocking really. More and more with our client base, iPads are starting to take over as the presentation tool and fun toy for the “c” level executives. Several of my own team member here at BVA own and leverage iPads in business activity, but for the most part it’s not adding value in my humble view in a business perceptive. It’s definitely moved into the benefit category as opposed to the NEED one. That being said it is a nice product that has it’s place in the residential side as well as the educational sector. The unit is not very secure and has alot of the security risks associated with the iPhone. ??The iPad can be used to access networks via RDP session (remote session) and actually works very well and quick on the 3G network but that still raises the question of security and access points for your network. I read an article here recently, that talked about how popular the iPad is with business and that a research company estimates that 2 million iPads have already been bought by companies with 1-99 employees. That is hard to believe but its a fact, the adoption rate is higher for companies with at least 20 employees.

The research article surfaced that the common uses for the device include demos, presentations, email, and Internet browsing. Larger businesses also use them as a tool when speaking with customers. Most of the businesses are using the iPad as a new gadget; it is not replacing PCs or other devices. The research company believes that notebooks, netbooks, tablets, and smartphones will continue to coexist in the future as data moves into the cloud. Technically does not provide further statistics from its survey or the number of people and type of survey it conducted. Having said that, it is encouraging to see small businesses adopting a device like the iPad.

It will be interesting what Apple decides to do with their new market share in the business segment. Will they decide to alter their OS code to be more desktop centric? It’s a great way to penetrate a market that Apple quite frankly has ignored.